Howth sailor Eve McMahon secures Youth World Championship in Italy

Eve McMahon of Howth has won the ILCA 6 (formerly Laser Radial) Youth World Championships in Arco on Lake Garda.

The 17-year-old was consistent from the early stages of the week's racing and won three out of the five qualifying races. A disqualification in the first race of the final series slipped her back a few points, but her lead was too great and she beat Anja Von Allmen of Switzerland and Sara Savelli of Italy to take gold from the 109 strong fleet.

A former Irish Sailing youth sailor of the year in both 2020 and 2019, Saturday’s medal marks a three-in-a-row run for McMahon. This summer she has taken silver in the under-19 category of the Eurilca (European region of International Laser Class Association), Under-21 European Championships in Montenegro and silver in the Eurilca Laser Radial Youth Championships in Croatia.

Irish Sailing coach Vasilij Zbogar said "It was a tough day with tough conditions. The wind went from 10 knots to zero at some points, so it was really hard to manage. Eve did an amazing job because it was really unpredictable. She kept herself calm and didn't panic even in a stressful situation".

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Seán Evans who heads up Irish Sailing’s youth academy, added: “Eve’s hard work over the last two to three years working with the whole team – medical, physical, on-water coaches and other sailors in the academy has culminated in her win today at the Youth Worlds.

"One of the great things she's been able to do over the last 18 months is to sail with Annalise Murphy as a training partner from the Irish Sailing Performance HQ in Dún Laoghaire which shows great fluidity within the Irish system that our top youth sailors are able to train alongside our greatest sailing Olympian."